Logitech's Z-10 Speakers: Your Laptop's Best Friend [Archive]

Jason Dunn

02-05-2007, 04:00 PM

<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/30786_6_1.jpg" /> Product Category: Speakers Manufacturer: <a href="http://www.logitech.com">Logitech</a> Where to Buy: <a href="http://thoughtsmedia.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=26254070&search=logitech+z-10">Low Price Search</a> Price: $100 to $150 USD System Requirements: Computer with USB port or 3.5mm analog audio output Specifications: 9.7"H x 4.5" W x 4.7" D per speaker. 30W RMS two-way speaker design. One inch dome tweeter and three inch large-magnet high-excursion woofer per speaker. Pros<li> Superb black piano-gloss finish; <li> Crisp and clear audio over USB; <li> Surprisingly good bass response; <li> Touch-input to control audio playback.Cons<li> Expensive for a 2.0 system; <li> LCD touch controls might be of dubious value to some; <li> Desktop software needed to gain full benefit of touch controls; <li> No Vista software (at the time of this writing).Summary: I'm a bit biased: I've always liked Logitech speakers. From the first time I connected a pair of their 5.1 speakers several years ago, I've thought quite highly of the company's products. So when they offered to send me a pair of their new Z-10 speakers I jumped at the chance. This was the first pair of their speakers without a sub-woofer that I was going to test, so I was interested to see how they performed. Would they have decent sound without a sub? And what exactly were those funky controls on the front of the slick-looking speakers? Read on for the full review!<!> <PAGEBREAK> What's in the box? The Z-10s come in packaging nicer than most speakers, so the out of box experience is impressive. The box is quite heavy, which gives you a feeling of quality. Each speaker has a plastic cover on it to protech the glossy front from scratches. The speaker without the controls is deceptively heavy - I believe because the power converter is inside it. There's no big power brick with these speakers, just a single power cable. The package also includes a USB cable to connect to the PC, and a single male to male 3.5mm audio cable for connecting to analog audio sources. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/30775_6_1.jpg" /> Figure 1: The front of the right-channel Z-10 speaker. There are a few differentiating features with these speakers: first, and most obvious are the controls. There's a 160 x 43 pixel LCD panel that can be used for several things: displaying the name of the playing song, a clock when there was no song playing, the date, or even email alerts. There are four preset buttons above the main controls, and these can be mapped to Internet radio stations or playlists. The playlist functionality in particular sounds helpful, especially if you map them to different genres. Launching into a game to frag someone? Punch #1 for your hard rock playlist. Mellowing out and writing some email? Punch #2 for your jazz/ambiant playlist. That's a lot faster than fumbling with your software to find a certain playlist. Unfortunately I wasn't able to test any of those functions because at the time of this writing (Feb 1st, 2006), there was no Vista version of the desktop client software for me to install on my laptop. The Windows XP software might have worked, but I didn't want to risk installing anything that would de-stabalize my laptop. For a complete breakdown of what software does, take a look at this <a href="http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review4301_main21513.html">Digital Trends review</a>. It's worth noting that even without the desktop software installed, the play/pause, previous/next, and volume controls all still work. <PAGEBREAK> External Audio is Better Than On-Board Audio The speakers have the ability to accept a 3.5mm analog input on the back, and there's a 3.5mm headphone back on the side. Standard fare. What's not so standard is the fact that you can connect directly to the speakers via USB, and this is the preferred form of connection in most scenarios. If you have an X-Fi card on your desktop PC, you'd want to use that because it would drive better sound. Most computers have on-board audio, which is prone to distortions and weak signal strength. By using the USB cable to deliver a purely digital signal to the digital to analog converter in the speakers, you end up with much higher quality audio. I tested these speakers with my Fujitsu 7010D laptop, which is typical of laptops with cheap Realtek on-board audio. I listened to the same song, at the same relative system volume, on the Z-10s using the headphone/audio-out jack on my laptop and compared it to the USB output. The difference was night and day - the USB connection provided cleaner sound (with no discernable distortions), crisper mid and high end signal, and the bass sounded much fuller. I was definitey impressed with the audio fidelity of the digital to analog conversion that the Z-10s performed. The All Important Question: Do They Bring The Bass? Without a sub-woofer, can two small-ish speakers deliver any real low end? I'm a bass player myself, so bass is important to me - I tend to tweak EQs and bass/treble settings toward the bass end of the sonic spectrum. On the Z-10s, the bass response seems "near field" (for lack of a better term). When I was sitting two feet away from the speakers, the bass sounded excellent on the fat-'70s-toned Temptations tracks I pumped through them. But when I moved to a distance of six feet, the bass dropped off quite a bit. This reinforces my belief that these speakers make excellent companions for a PC system (especially a laptop) that you're sitting in front of and a less-than-ideal companion for my Roku M2000 that needs to fill a 20 by 50 foot room. That's not the fault of the Z-10 speakers of course - you always want to use the right tool for the right job. Bass signals coming from a sub-woofer in particular need some distance for the sound wave to expand. The Final Word Logitech has delivered a solid set of speakers - regardless of whether or not you fully utilize the LCD screen, these are good speakers. If the idea of getting email alerts on your speakers appeals to you, you'll love these speakers. If that sounds useless, but you still want great-sounding speakers, the Z-10s remain a good choice. Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He really likes trying out new speakers.